Sacred Showdown: Control for the Soul: A riveting true story of two brothers' bond and battle from heaven's glory to hell's fury

By Richard Kozak

If you have ever attended a funeral or stood beside the bed of a sick loved one, you can't help but ask, "Is this it? Is there life after death?" In this compelling true story of two brothers' journey, you will see the supernatural and natural worlds collide as they fight together for healing and life. This riveting experience will take you beyond this life to see what is to come. You will get a vivid glimpse of heaven and its glorious details. In contrast, you will also walk through the journey of hell and the bone-chilling sights and creatures. You will be inspired to see how people, prayer, and providence can affect everyday outcomes. This beautiful account is a testimony that when we are weak and unable to help ourselves, both God and others can be the strength to bring hope and restoration. You are sure to be comforted, strengthened, and shaken in your faith and future as you read this story. It is guaranteed you will never look at life here or beyond the same.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jan 13, 2020
• ISBN: 9781645157878

Book preview

Who, Me?

Richard Kozak HS

If someone had told me that I would write a book one day, I would have bet against them. In my wildest imagination, there’s no way I would have believed it. I wasn’t much for reading, and I wasn’t a great student. From the time I woke up in the hospital, my visions and the voices I heard in my communication with Tom were vivid in my mind. The day after I woke, I asked the nurse for a pen and paper, and I wrote down of everything I could recall a lot of my experience of the miracle.

Little did I know that Tom also was inspired by the Lord to take notes of what he witnessed while being an instrument and following God’s plan. We have the privilege and honor of sharing the wonders of God and how he works in mysterious ways. How he took two simple farm boys and made them instruments in one of his powerful works.

Two days after I come out of a coma, I felt the desire to tell the world that there is something beyond the sunset. I was given a second chance and it had a purpose. That purpose is to give people on earth the chance to read about the powerful and miraculous journey that Tom and I experienced through the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Farm

My parents came to the United States from Poland at an early age; my dad was fifteen and my mother was five. They knew what it was like to be at the back of the line on a boat, coming to a strange country, learning a new culture. My parents met at my grandparents’ house. It was common in those days for men to room and board with relatives. My dad was boarding with my grandmother and grandfather when he met my mother. When she was fifteen and dad was twenty- five, they were married.

When first married, they lived high on a mountain in Pennsylvania called the Strawberry Ridge in a small cabin-like building. As the family grew, they moved to a larger house on Level Road in Lilly, Pennsylvania. During the Depression of 1932, my dad lost his job. This resulted in their getting behind on house payments, and so they lost everything. At the time, they were raising seven children.

There was a small run-down farm not far from our home. It had ten rooms, but the house had no plumbing, electricity, running water, or insulation. A pot belly stove in living room and a cook stove in the kitchen provided the only heat. There were holes cut in the ceiling that let heat into two of the bedrooms. The rest of the house had no heat. There was an outhouse about 50 yards from the main building. If you had to go to the outhouse in winter, you hugged that pot belly stove as soon as you got back in the house!

Together my parents had 14 children – ten boys and four girls, with the last seven children born in that farmhouse. All of the children were born at home, most of them without a doctor. My mother was attended by a midwife, either one of the older girls in the family or a neighbor.

The farm was owned by Father Morgen A. McDermott who was serving at Saint Francis Church in Cresson, Pennsylvania. He and my father came to an agreement that if my father would maintain and clear the farm, he could stay there rent-free. It was a win-win situation. The land hadn’t been farmed for many years, so there was a lot of undergrowth. My dad and my older brothers used the horses and mules to pull out the smaller trees and brush; they used dynamite for larger trees and stumps.

My parents were hard-working, honest, Christian people, and their family was their life. Their faith in God was tested many times beginning with the Depression. They suffered for lack of money and food. Seven of their sons were in the military starting with World War II, then the Korean and Vietnam Wars. Another test of faith came when the thirteenth child, my brother, Chuckie, was